Water cooler politics can either help you or hurt you, and unfortunately you never know which it will be until after you participate in water cooler politics. It is a simple and unfortunate fact that water cooler politics always involves the tearing down of another person. As long as the object of the tearing down can be deflected to someone else, people will continue to tear down others in the office. It is a very competitive field out there and many people are operating on a fear reflex right now. In fact, water cooler politics are one of the places where promotions are made and lay offs are determined.
How do you avoid such politics and still keep your job safe? Only you can determine whether or not you can successfully avoid the typical day around the water cooler, but many employers notice who is disrupting the morale and who is keeping their nose to the grind. Maintaining a warm smile and a happy disposition in the face of those who might be attacking you at the daily water cooler meeting can also help keep you away from the dregs of water cooler politics. When people do not feel threatened by you they are less likely to tear you down and put your neck out on the chopping block. Doing your job diligently can make you appear threatening, but at the same time you can offset this with a warm personality. Somehow people don’t like to drag one through the politics of the game when they feel a genuine sense of warmth from them.
